Yang and Blake breeze through the doubles round. Sitting high up on the stands, hearing the eruption of the cheers around them, Azula crosses her arms, thoroughly unimpressed.

"You're not cheering loud enough!" Ruby elbows her.

"These other teams from the other schools aren't much to look at," Azula frowns, rubbing her shoulder. Ruby had a surprisingly strong elbow. "Your two teammates had atrocious teamwork this round and still managed to defeat them."

"Yeah, because atrocious teamwork for us is still great teamwork!" Ruby says. She grins good-naturedly at Azula. "C'mon, why do you have to be so judge-y all the time?"

"I am merely making a fair appraisal of the situation."

"Even Weiss wasn't as bad as you are in the beginning."

Behind the loud sounds of Amity Arena around them, Azula can hear a deliberately provocative slant to Ruby's words. Azula looks at her for a second then figures it out. Weiss has been out of commission for close to two entire days now. For someone like Ruby, Weiss's partner and leader who does not have the information that Azula is slowly eating her soul, the situation must seem pretty out of the ordinary and kind of worrisome. With the specific words she's chosen to use, Ruby is trying to get Weiss to jab back at her, Weiss specifically, and not her.

These past two days have been surprisingly… boring, for Azula.

She exercised a lot. Ate good food. Took a few cat naps. It's not like she didn't think she couldn't come up with some grand plan in two days to overthrow Ozpin and take control of Beacon and instigate a dictatorship while Weiss wasn't paying attention. She could have probably done such a thing if she really wanted to. But for some reason, any particular ambition she could have had was simply checked by the irritating thought, What would even be the point?

She had considered going out there into the city to track down Cinder Fall and the White Fang, and then was forced to begrudgingly acknowledge that as she was, she had no idea how to track them down and even if she did would have been no match for them, and so she worked herself into a momentary fury of katas and martial arts, only to be hit at the end of it by the defeating conclusion that this had never worked for getting her firebending back and probably wasn't going to anytime soon.

She had snuck down to the vaults, where the Fall Maiden had been, half-dead, and had stared at her for a while. "I'm really tempted," she had said, loudly. "Hey. Don't ignore me. Say something." But the Fall Maiden, being in a coma, of course hadn't said anything.

Of all things, she found herself missing Weiss. That's right, Azula horrifyingly inane crisis of identity and self-confidence, or something equally inane like that, had only gotten worse in the progression of the past two days. She just feels vaguely annoyed by it at all. She isn't used to sitting around and waiting for something to happen. She's used to taking action. But at the same time, there's nothing to be taking action against.

This is a valuable opportunity to self-reflect! a familiar voice occasionally, in the slowest moments of the past two days, had come drifting to her mind. Drink some tea! Personal growth is—

Screw off, Uncle, Azula scowled. You never said that to me, only Zuko.

Being happy, being satisfied, getting revenge… Azula wants it. She knows she wants it. Right? She knows she's supposed to want it. But then what, afterwards? Throw Zuko and her uncle in the cells, free her father, rule the nation with an iron fist, and… Well, she should just kill Zuko and her uncle, shouldn't she, and Ty Lee, and Mai, and everyone else who ever did her wrong, that would be the best solution… But it's a long long list of people who have wronged her. And then there would be another huge war. And can she really kill the Avatar and his water friends and the Earth Kingdom and everyone else who would come baying for her blood?

Once upon a time, her answer would have been an unflinching, immediate, maybe even a little crazy, Yes.

Now, it's still Yes, but a lot more hesitant.

She hates that she's having this stupid debate with herself over and over again.

Anyways, if something's going to happen at least, please just let it happen soon.

Feeling Ruby's expectant gaze lingering on her, Azula prods, Say it's not my fault I had to carry everyone else on this team in the beginning.

"It's not my fault I had to…" Weiss jolts awake and starts speaking automatically, like a machine, then perceives Ruby's silver eyes honed in on her, and almost falters, "...to carry everyone else on this team in the beginning…?"

Ruby makes a smart-aleck comment that has Weiss bristling and throwing a barb back, and the two dissolve into a childish argument about something nonsensical, and things seem just as usual, ordinary, how quickly Weiss just picks herself up and puts herself back in the flow of things, as if nothing's wrong.

Afterwards, when they're alone, Weiss hums and says, "If you're feeling conflicted, I'm glad."

"I'm not feeling conflicted," Azula responds, and Weiss merely radiates a combined feeling of disbelief and smugness at her.

It's always been that they know each other better than they know themselves.

Weiss sees the number of missed calls from her father, pales a little, and puts her Scroll away. She does not want to deal with any of that. Azula's explained the situation to her about the call she accidentally picked up, and while Weiss would like someone to blame for her father being more displeased with her than usual, there really wasn't anything else that could have been done. She'll just have to figure out how to deal with her father as things come her way. Or kick the can further down the road by somehow managing to circumvent the confrontation when she returns to Atlas.

She's a little worried about herself.

So nothing is not wrong, and her soul isn't holding up as well as she thought it would be. Or maybe Azula is just a glutton. As long as what's happening isn't doing irreparable damage before they get to find Azula's body and switch themselves back… But there's the thing. How does Weiss know it's not irreparable damage?

"I need to talk to the Headmaster about this," the realization was a little bit defeating. It tasted sour to Weiss. "We need him to arrange for us some kind of… temporary leave of absence. At the very least, I need to get out of classes where I need to use my Aura." She needs to conserve it as much as possible before the Solstice arrives. Although she's satisfied with her performance during the team match, it wasn't the plan to just conk out for two days afterwards. She's glad that RWBY on the whole is doing well so far in the tournament. But once the tournament is over, the question is, how is she supposed to explain her absences to her teammates in a way that won't get them suspicious?

"I don't have an answer for your question either, Miss Schnee," Ozpin says. It's the following day, they're in his office, and Weiss has just reluctantly admitted to him how dire her situation is, and he says, "Actually, I am rather disturbed by what you've brought to my attention."

"I assume, by the clandestine way you've sought me out, that you haven't let Miss Rose, Miss Belladonna, and Miss Xiao Long in on the specifics of your problem?" Ozpin continues, raising an eyebrow behind his spectacles, and Weiss avoids making eye contact. He says, "Have the two of you reconsidered the options I laid out to you from before? Perhaps it's not too late."

I'll figure out a good lie to trick your team, Azula declares. I'm good at lying, I can pull the wool over their eyes for a month or two.

...I just hate this… Weiss really doesn't like keeping the secret, but she also really can't think of an alternative at this point. It's for the best, she tells herself, she just doesn't want to worry them.

"We're still not editing our memories in order to merge our souls," Azula states very flatly.

"On the surface, it may sound appalling," Ozpin says, with an uncharacteristic gentleness to his voice, "but it is really not such a bad thing. It would certainly be better than having one soul completely superseded, destroyed by another. You might think that you would lose essential parts of yourself in the process, but you should also think of it this way, that the sum of two parts is not any less than two parts separated, and is in some ways greater."

Azula glowers at him. Weiss feels discomforted. The biggest risk out of telling the Headmaster and trying to get him to secretly give her a hand is that he might turn and spill the beans to RWBY and who knows who else.

"As for your request, I'll still need to think about it as well, Miss Schnee, Miss Azula," is what Ozpin follows up with.

"You owe us," Azula points out. "Remember?"

"Nevertheless," Ozpin says, infuriatingly. Then, he clears his throat, and glances at his wristwatch. "And I believe it's almost time for Miss Xiao Long's individual match to begin. I don't think you'd want to miss that."

Weiss checks her Scroll reflexively and sees messages from Ruby asking where she is. She stands up, preparing to leave. At the doorway, Weiss pauses. She looks back at the headmaster, who seems to be gazing off into the distance, and wonders when she stopped feeling intimidated by him, when he just seems irritating and kind of foolish to her now. Such a disrespectful feeling, that's definitely Azula's personality leaking into her.

"Headmaster, do you have any updates about Cinder Fall or the White Fang?" Weiss asks, tentatively.

"I'm afraid not," Ozpin says. "But I don't think it's anything you need to worry about."

Azula narrows her eyes. She eyes the way Ozpin's fingers seem to come together and have tightened a little bit and thinks, right, definitely nothing to worry about.

"Hey!" Weiss protests when Azula marches them down one of the hallways. "What are you doing—"

"We're already at the school, might as well," Azula says. "It never hurts to be overprepared."

When Yang punches Coco Adel's weapon to smithereens after the end of their match, narrowly avoiding taking Adel's head off in the process, Azula is one of the first in the crowd to shoot to her feet. She reaches for the sword she had them filch from the Beacon armory without going through the proper protocols as the crowd around them descends into boos and jeers, Yang looking up towards the stands in confusion, Ruby holding her hands to her face, Blake freezing in stunned horror, and Weiss slaps her hand away with her other hand, not caring if she looks like an idiot.

"What are you doing?" Weiss hisses.

"Something just happened," Azula says, tersely, still trying to reach for the sword, "and I just have this feeling , it has something to do with—"

Azula's fervently scanning the crowds, trying to make out something Weiss can't see. What Weiss can see, out of the corner of her right eye, is Ironwood's Atlesian knights appearing in the arena, and Coco Adel's other teammates rushing into the arena as well to surround and yell at a still-confused looking Yang as they support Adel off the ground. The last thing Weiss needs right now is Azula starting a fight in the stands.

"Weiss, " Azula says, in a low voice, and Weiss's hand clamps down on the handle of the sword in an instance despite herself. "Tell me that girl isn't that lackey of—" then she breaks herself off, voice losing momentum, arrested by sudden uncertainty. "...Wrong person? No. But… Where did she…?"

A blur of red as Ruby jumps down the stands into the arena to confront Coco Adel's teammates. Blake follows suit a short second later. The Atlesian Knights have drawn their guns. Over the loudspeakers, Weiss can hear Oobleck and Port demanding that they cut the cameras. The large screen on display continues to show the loop of Yang breaking Adel's machine gun to pieces after Adel barely manages to block a sudden, unexpected attack from Yang following what looks like a friendly attempt at a handshake. Weiss's body feels like it's splitting in two—one half, wanting to jump down to where the rest of her teammates are, the other half, to wherever Azula is trying to take them.

"Where did she go?" Azula says, voice regaining power, sounding furious, and in that split second, Weiss loses the fight, Azula about-faces sharply, and she takes Weiss's body off in a running jump toward another part of the stands. Azula! Weiss swears as she almost lands on a spectator, if not for herself making a glyph at the last second, the spectator letting out a shocked exclamation, and she's forced to make another glyph as Azula takes off in another jump. Stop, we're going back —

There's no one there. There's no one, no one. But she swore she saw—

You didn't see anything!

I'm not crazy! I saw her. Emerald Sustrai, that's her damn name isn't it, that woman's lackey —

She's not here, that's impossible, how could she have snuck past all the security —

Do you think I'm lying to you right now? Me, to you?

"I'm not lying!" Yang cries out, in their dorm as Ironwood interrogates her. "She was trying to attack me!"

Weiss's grip on the sword is so tight it's starting to make the muscles in her hand cramp up. Azula is incredibly quiet, Weiss thinks she can pick up a trace of resentment, but Azula is mostly in deep thought. When Ironwood finally leaves after disqualifying Yang under no uncertain terms, there's a moment of heavy silence.

"You guys believe me, right?" Yang says.

"Of course," Ruby is quick to assert.

"Yes," Weiss says.

Blake doesn't say anything for a while, and everyone looks at her. Yang seems hurt.

"I once saw someone very close to me change for the worse," Blake finally says. "I want to believe you, but… Stress? Adrenaline? Is that really a viable excuse for what happened?"

"Blake," Yang says.

"There's something else," Weiss brings up. "I... think Azula saw something while we were in the stands, too. Emerald Sustrai, one of the fake students that was kicked out of Beacon, who was on the same team as that woman responsible for blowing up the warehouse. But then, when we tried to go confront her, she was gone, she just disappeared like she wasn't there at all." Weiss pauses, eyebrows furrowing. "I think whatever Emerald was doing there, it might be related to what happened. We know she's working with the bad guys, so it's too much of a coincidence, isn't it?"

"That must be it," Ruby nods, seeming relieved. "Both you and Yang saw things that shouldn't have happened, you're right, that can't be a coincidence—"

"Did you see her, Weiss?" Blake asks, sharply.

"No," Weiss admits, "I was focused on what was going down in the arena, but Azula—"

"How can she see it, but you not see it?"

"Well, we're two different people, so—"

"Are you?" Blake stands up.

"What?" Weiss is surprised to suddenly have Blake's ire directed towards her, having to field a piercing amber gaze. It's her turn to feel hurt. "You can't… You can't still think it's all in my head, right, that it's a mental thing, after all this time? She's talked to you, she's real! I've explained everything!"

"Even so," Blake says. "You can't pretend that you haven't been trying to hide something, have you, Weiss? Have you really explained everything?"

Weiss forces herself to meet Blake's gaze evenly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Ever since that mission, you've been constantly zoning out," Blake accuses. "And the other you, Azula, she's been taking control more and more often, more obviously. And I know you've been talking to the Headmaster in secret. Are you sure there's nothing else we need to know?"

"Oh, shut up already," Azula takes control of Weiss's mouth with a snap. "Some of us are actually trying to think. I know you feel helpless for not being able to do anything and for not understanding the situation, and so you're just simply attempting to nitpick everyone else around you, but please do take your insecurities somewhere else—"

"Woah, wait wait wait!" Ruby says. "Weiss!"

"And I'm not Weiss, you—!" Weiss slaps her hand over her mouth and turns around, holding her hand over her mouth, forcibly muffling herself.

What's gotten into you? she demands, furiously.

I wasn't lying, Azula says, very pointedly.

I know. I do believe you. I do. Pause. You're not crazy.

Your teammates are being incredibly unhelpful. You are all missing the big picture. The Headmaster's obviously been as useful as a sack of bricks, and that woman is still out there somewhere, she said your school would burn by a deadline, we've reached the deadline, and her lackey has just showed up and just done something, you don't think there's something else bigger going on?

"You okay?" Yang eventually asks.

"...I should be asking you that," Weiss lowers her hand.

Blake sighs. "I do believe you, Yang, I do," she says, softly. And a beat later, "And you too, Weiss."

"It's just a lot, I know," Ruby says, ever the voice of reason. "But it's okay, we can figure this out together."

Yang wants a moment to herself in order to rest, so the other three of them leave to give her some alone time. JNPR is standing outside the dorm, and Azula makes an excuse and makes Weiss stalk off, almost bowling over Jaune in the process.

Once more, for the second time that day, she finds the Headmaster in his office, sipping his coffee and studying the holographic screen in front of him. The next match-up for the Vytal Tournament, Pyrrha Nikos and Penny Polendina, is displayed. Ironwood is also there. Perfect.

"If you haven't decided what to do with the Maiden powers yet, give them to me."

"No."

"Then call off the next match."

"We can't do that," Ironwood says. "At this point, it would only cause even more panic and confusion in the kingdom. The temporary spike in Grimm activity is more than under control with all our increased security. Almost half of the entire Atlesian military has secured Vale by now. Cinder Fall will not be able to do a single thing."

"She just did a thing, right under your watch!" Weiss starts explaining about Emerald Sustrai, and while the Headmaster at least sets down his coffee, seeming to pay attention, Ironwood just ends up cutting her off.

"It won't happen again," Ironwood says, firmly. "Even supposing it was her and you weren't just seeing things, we'll be thorough with who we allow into the stands in the next match. Very thorough."

Useless. Utterly useless, the whole lot of them.

In a way, this situation almost reminds me of that man, Weiss points out. The one in the Earth Kingdom who made a deal with you for power. Ba Sing Se, yet again. He thought he was in control of everything, and that all his men were loyal to him. He was confident that nothing would go wrong.

And then when I actually made a move, you know how it went, Azula says, grimly.